not that I have anything to write . . .

I finally broke down and added two of my secret obsessions--music and local histories--to my profile :-) tonight. Can't figure out what to do with this year's technology and literacy focus, though. Is this also a simple pleasure or does it really just belong on my other (techie) blog, which I've been seriously avoiding . . .? It's a little like my blog about why I am not a writer (NOT!). I wrote the perfect intro piece for that blog two summers ago, emailed it to the individual who was the catalyst for that state of (non)being/blog, shared it with a group of close friends (some of whom had had similar experiences)--and I was over not being a writer! But the empty blog is symbolic, somehow . . .

This week's simple pleasure? Last Saturday with the "babies," teaching them the swing song I grew up with . . . Watching them explore the new family car their parents surprised them with . . . Michael's first reaction--What on earth were they thinking about???--morphing into This is the best thing you ever bought for us!

I've never owned a black car, in or out, and doubt I ever will. But their new car brought back this one, one of my first ever memories . . .

On the back of the photo are these words, a message my mother wrote from me to my grandfather across the sea, the grandfather whose hat I threw out of an upstairs window somewhere across the gray Atlantic a few months before this photo was taken, the grandfather I would not again, in this world, see . . .

Fevrier 1950

Bon baisers a Grand daddy

Memories are everything . . . the best of life's simple pleasures . . .

home improvements--the next installment

Here's a quote that made me smile--something from my February blog on dealing and blessing . . .

Had to laugh when resolution time rolled around a few weeks ago. I was still wedged uncomfortably in the throes of 2007's three top-rated resolutions. Never mind the rest of the list--the usual stuff like exercising semi-regularly or replacing porch railings or thiswouldbetheyearI'dgobacktoFrance. . .

Maybe the way to approach the list is to put the really hard stuff at the top? Sure makes planning for and doing the tasks of lesser importance much easier.

Take replacing porch railings , for instance.

Thank you, Mama!

Or take thiswouldbetheyearI'dgobacktoFrance. . . OK, maybe it wasn't--but next year is. I've actually picked up (but not yet completed) a passport application and, get this, bought new luggage!

Exercising semi-regularly? I tried! My left knee is functional again. Yes! I've bought serious walking shoes. Any day now, I'll be back on the streets, earphones and all!

Seriously, I did tackle the big three first . . . major league resolutions: taking stock of life, health, career. Between me and this blog, I'm glad to be dealing, once again, with minor league resolutions. It's a blessing that I can . . .

home improvements 2008 - the shed

many thanks to KAKGK for the gift and to MRMC for the installation prep, inspection/recommendations, etc.,




and to my left knee for simply hanging in there :-) long enough for me to paint the exterior (well, except for some of the toohighup trim [but that's primed]) . . .






of course, the only new space I've occupied so far is the windowbox (too cute!) . . .

August . . .

A third gone already and I haven't posted . . .

OK, maybe life isn't all a case of simple pleasures.

But, under all the stuff of getting through the days, there are a few . . .

If I weren't on a baby food diet at the moment (long story, hopefully with a not too distant happy ending), I would never, ever, in a million years made myself the best-ever eggsaladwithrealmayonnaise and ateitall! today. I didn't even know I liked egg salad!

If I weren't temporarily sidelined with an overstressed knee, I would never, ever, in a million years have given myself permission to read all the books I've read so far this month alone! I would never have ordered the serious walking shoes to go with my serious mp3 player and my serious conviction that yesIdoneedtoputmyselffirst . . . at least sometimes.

Bet there's more simple pleasures under the stuff of getting through the days of August . . . I'll keep digging :-) And maybe even posting . . .